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From: grim2@cbnewsk.att.com (steven.j.pilgrim)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Upgrading 286 to 386
Keywords: How difficult is it?
Message-ID: <1991Jan9.185040.7909@cbnewsk.att.com>
Date: 9 Jan 91 18:50:40 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 25

I would appreciate any help I can get with this relatively
basic question.  How difficult is it to upgrade a 286-12
machine to something more powerful like a 386-25 or 386-33?
I'm not a hardware guru.  I've put in cards and changed jumpers
on the motherboard for different video display settings but
that's about it.  I'm not afraid of taking it apart on the other hand.
I have a large footprint Northgate 286-12.  The only extra
internal cards I have are a mouse card, VGA card, modem, and
a joystick card.  The disk controller is an RLL type.  I have
your basic three drives.  I've read some articles here that
say I should consider a 16-bit disk controller if I move up
in speed.  My basic questions are what do I need to look for
when making a purchase through Computer Shopper for instance?
Northgate does not sell motherboards separately so I will need
to go to a different vendor.  How can I tell if I will need to
upgrade my disk controller?  Is this something someone with my
limited experience can handle?  One other question.  Since I
don't want to do this procedure too often does getting a cache
on my system make sense?  How much memory is usuallly needed
these days on the motherboard the applications coming out these
days?  Like I said, any help/insight you can provide is appreciated.
Hopefully I can learn something to help someone else sometime.

Thanks,
Steve Pilgrim